As I mentioned on Wednesday, I was able to journey to Raleigh to visit with the Lukes over the fourth of July. We had many adventures that I photographed specifically to share with you folks on this Foto Friday. I hope you enjoy!
The first time we took Mr. Fargus out for a walk, I was reminded of Mr. Poe because of this cool Lotus in the Lukes' neighborhood:
Thursday evening Mrs. Luke and I went on a bike ride along the Greenway Trails:
We saw miles of such beautiful scenery- it was hard to believe that we were in the middle of the capitol city!
Friday evening we went out for a dessert of pie after dinner at Piebird:
We got slices of honey and sea salt, bananas in pajamas, and apricot and coconut crumble pies to share between the three of us. The pies were fantastic, but the to-go service was definitely not.
On a couple of evenings, we played Crash Bandicoot...the only video game that Mrs. Luke and I are any good at. Of course, Mr. Luke plays like a champ, and we spent most of our time watching him:
Saturday, we ate lunch at Chubby's Tacos, which was very tasty. It reminded me of Moe's, except it was more "authentic Mexican" and the burritos were even bigger:
The three of us split a meal: the burrito, two servings of beans, and one serving of chips, and it was the perfect amount. I would definitely recommend visiting one if you're in the Raleigh/Durham area!
Following lunch, we went to various portions of the NC State campus so I could see where the Lukes spend their time...the CVM with its multitude of skeletons (like this giraffe's):
Centennial Campus:
And of course, the football stadium:
Mama and Papa Wolgemuth and Mr. Wolgemuth (Mrs. Luke's and my parents and brother) arrived later that night to join in the festivities. Sunday afternoon, we went back to NC State to visit main campus, where Papa Wolgemuth worked on his masters in forestry management (with a minor in soils). We talked in the wolf ears, visited the technology room in the library, and walked through the Free Expression Tunnel:
We also had a fantastic dinner at Assaggio's Italian Bistro later than night. Monday, Mama and Papa Wolgemuth and I went to the capitol building:
for a tour of the grounds, some music, and some history exhibits. We also went on a trolley tour of downtown Raleigh where we saw a ton of beautiful historic houses and buildings, like the house of Col. Heck:
Following the tour, we drove around Mama and Papa Wolgemuth's old haunts, including the apartment they lived in while they were there, which was also my first home:
The evening concluded with a nice dinner of Brats and Secretariat, courtesy of the Lukes. It was a very lovely visit. The only thing that could've made it any better is if Mr. Poe and the girls could've joined us!
What exciting things did you do over the holiday weekend?
Good morning all, and welcome to Theology Thursday on the blog! I hope that you'll open your Bibles with me as we once again look at some thoughts I've had from my daily Bible reading and recent studies.
As people we have to live in this world, but as Christians we are to not be of the world. A lot of times we say that without actually considering its meaning. Someone in the world will have totally opposite attitudes, behaviors, motives, etc. than someone of the world. This person who is simply in the world has a Christ-centered life; he/she has abandoned the works of the flesh for the fruit of the spirit. Not that he/she is perfect, but he/she is doing everything possible to grow closer to God.
In Matt 5:29-30, Jesus says,
----"If your right eye causes you to sin, puck it out and cast it ----from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your ----members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ----And if you right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it ----from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your ----members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."
These seem like pretty extreme measures, and because of that fact, we often immediately say to ourselves after reading it that "of course Jesus didn't mean this literally." And He didn't...but if we think about the things that encourage us to engage in specific sins that we may struggle with- a certain friend, a family member, a hobby, etc.- it would be just as painful to cut these people/things out of our lives as it would be to cut off our own hand. But Christ says it is beneficial for us to do so, so that we will not be cast into hell.
The easiest way to keep from sinning is to avoid the temptation in the first place, which again leads us to Jesus' advice to cast things that tempt us away. Too many times we think to ourselves, "I can go out with ___; he/she ___s but I'm strong enough not to be tempted." Even if we're not initially tempted by something, willing putting ourselves into sinful situations can cause us to gradually either become tempted to try this thing or become so accustomed to it that we don't see it how God sees it anymore. We must get rid of our temptations. For good. I believe it was our friend, Mr. B. Hall, who made the point that Jesus didn't say "pull out your eye and set it on your dresser so you can use it later," he said "pull out your eye and throw it away."
Mini Case Study: Joseph
In Gen 39, we see the story of Joseph while he was a slave in Potiphar's house. Potiphar saw that Joseph was blessed in everything that he did because God was with him, Potiphar set Joseph as overseer of the house. While Joseph lived and worked there, his master's wife asked him daily to "lie with her" and "to be with her" (v.10). Joseph declined these advances- both to commit adultery with her AND to be in her presence. In short, he avoided her.
One day, when no one else was in the house, Potiphar's wife grabbed Joseph's garment and again asked him to lie with her. Joseph's response was to run away, leaving his garment in her hand. Since she had his garment, she then proceeded to accuse Joseph of sexual assault, which lead to Potiphar sending Joseph to prison. Here, Joseph is a fantastic example of someone trying his best to avoid not just avoid sin, but to avoid even the temptation to sin.
Life is not a sobriety test. The point is not to walk the line between being pleasing to God and being pleasing to men...we should flee the temptations of the world, striving to please God with all that we are and all that we do.
Last week I was able to visit the Lukes for a few days, and they made all kinds of tasty treats for me. One of the first recipes of theirs that I'd like to share with you is one that Mrs. Luke developed herself, based on some inspiration from their honeymoon...Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wraps (serves 4).
Ingredients: 2 boneless skinless chicken breast, 1/2 cup + 3 Tbs Jamaican Jerk marinade, 4 slices of bacon, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (not shown), 1/2 cup mayo, 1 mango, 1 tomato, 1 head of lettuce, 4 tortillas, 1/8 cup onion (finely diced, not shown), 1/2 tsp garlic powder (not shown), 1/2 tsp onion powder (not shown), 1/2 tsp salt (not shown), 1/2 tsp pepper (not shown).
Dice the chicken and mix it in a ziplock bag with the 1/2 cup of Jamaincan Jerk marinade. Place the bag in the refrigerator and allow the chicken to marinade for at least six hours. Slice the mango and puree it using a food processor. It should look like the image below:
Keep all but 2 Tablespoons of the mango puree in a small bowl. Combine the reserved 2 Tbs of puree, mayo, onion, the remaining Jamaican Jerk sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper to make a sauce:
Place the chicken and marinade in a skillet:
Cook over med-high heat till done. Also cook the bacon using your favorite method (microwave, stove top, oven, etc.). Then slice the tomato and lettuce into small pieces, and crumble the cooked bacon. To assemble, layer the mayo sauce, cheese, chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mango puree on a tortilla:
Then wrap and enjoy! It's delicious and tastes just like a trip to the islands...or to the NC coast.
For this installment of Poes' Pals, I'm cheating in that these friends are also family. Please meet...the Lukes:
Mrs. Luke is my younger sister, so obviously I've known her my entire life. I've known Mr. Luke for many, many years as well, since before they started dating. The Lukes and I went on many a band trip together in high school, and our friendship continued to grow when we all entered into various engineering programs at Mississippi State. When Mr. Poe joined the party, the four of us worked together as members of a co-ed honor fraternity, and we occasionally went out on double dates. I also worked with Mr. Luke for several years and lived with Mrs. Luke and Mr. Fargus for a while at school.
Mr. Fargus is an Australian shepherd mix. He acts like a grumpy old man, except when his Mommy's around. He loves to go on walks and to eat doggie ice cream (blueberry vanilla is his favorite flavor). He also enjoys taking up the majority of the bed or couch or whatever he may be sitting on, and he hates when people mess with his tail. He's a good boy, and he looks out for his Mom.
The human Lukes are great people. We love their company and enjoy hanging out with them very much. Mrs. Luke is one of the most intelligent and hard working people that I know. She graduated with a 4.0 in Biological Engineering at MSU and is currently working on her DVM. Mr. Luke is also super intelligent and an extremely genuine person. He is currently working on his masters in material science. They work wonderfully together and compliment each other nicely.
On January 1, 2011 and after 6.5 years of dating, the Lukes were wed in North Carolina. Mr. Poe and I were very thankful to be part of the beautiful ceremony. It's hard not living right across town from them like we did when we were all undergraduates, but we definitely enjoy getting to see them whenever we can!
Most "real-life" fluid mechanics problems are super complex and are governed by a multitude of non-linear differential equations, which means that it would take you, or me, or Einstein lifetimes to determine a flow "solution" to these equations by hand...and that's only if an analytical solution is actually possible. With that in mind, we often examine a problem and try to make as many simplifying assumptions as possible to pare it down to a system of equations that we can handle. This is particularly important when investigating fluid mechanics for the first time. So today we will examine a few of the standard simplifying assumptions that we'll apply as we continue our study of fluids.
No-slip
While the no-slip condition isn't exactly a simplifying assumption, it is typically employed as a simple boundary condition. Because of a fluid's viscosity, or resistance to flow, fluid molecules immediately adjacent to a solid surface cling to the surface. Thus, the velocity of the fluid at the surface boundary is zero since those molecules are not moving or not "slipping" along the surface. If we make an assumption that the fluid is inviscid (having no viscosity), the no-slip condition does not hold, and the fluid at the solid surface has a non-zero velocity.
Steady
If we assume that the characteristics of a flow or the properties of a fluid are not changing with respect to time, we are making the steady or steady-state assumption. This assumption eliminates any time derivatives present in the governing equations since these mathematical terms represent physical changes in time. If this assumption CANNOT be made, the flow is termed unsteady.
Laminar
We can reduce the number of spatial dimension that we consider in a problem by making the assumption that the flow is laminar. If you go to your bathroom sink and turn on the faucet slightly, you will see an example of laminar flow. This flow is characterized by order; the water from the faucet is orderly flowing downward into the sink. If you turn the faucet on the whole way, you will see an example of turbulent flow. This flow is characterized by statistical chaos; the water is predominantly flowing in the downward direction, but there are spurts, sputters, and rotations in the flow that give it velocity components in all three spatial directions. If we examine the governing equations for the laminar flow from the faucet that is only in the downward direction, we can eliminate any terms with either of the other two velocity components. Furthermore, for most laminar flow cases, the derivatives with respect to the third spatial direction can be eliminated since we can often define the flow in just two directions.
Incompressible
We have previously mentioned this term, but I would like to expand on the idea here. Technically there are no incompressible fluids; however, in many instances, we can make the assumption that a fluid is incompressible without incurring much error. One benefit to this assumption is that it makes the math easier, since the density is considered a constant not changing with space or time. Thus, density can be pulled out of any derivative terms in the governing equations, AND the continuity and momentum equations can be solved independently of one another (we'll get back to this soon).
Be sure to keep these in mind as we journey through the world of fluid mechanics. My students would often get nervous at the thought of eliminating terms from equations, but as long as we do so by making these assumptions (when they are valid), we are making fluid problems solvable. Simplifying assumptions are your friend!
While there are more stores to talk about, by this time there's a good chance that you may be obtaining a good bit of stuff from your coupon endeavors and wondering what to do with it and how much is too much. So, stockpiling is the couponing topic that we will address today.
Items will reach their lowest selling price cyclically, typically every six weeks. Because of this fact, the couponing gurus suggest that when an item does reach this point in its pricing that you buy enough of it for your family to use for the next six weeks, until it goes on sale again. Even without using coupons, the stockpile method will save you a good deal of money, because you won't have to pay full price for an item or make last-minute trips to the store.
If you have a very small family (like mine), it doesn't take much to cover you for six weeks. This fact will lead you to a crossroads: do I continue to buy stuff for free/really cheap or do I stop? While the choice is yours, I would recommend thinking about the fact that we are to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with. If you wish to continue to buy, I urge you to not create year-long supplies of anything like the folks featured on TV tend to do. Instead, donate your stash to shelters, help needy saints, and/or build gift baskets for friends/relatives. It is also good to remember that you don't have to take advantage of EVERY deal and that there are a multitude of other folks out there who are trying to feed/support their families cheaply.
I am very blessed at this point in my life to have a spare closet and a pantry where I can keep my stockpiles. I try to keep food in the pantry, personal items in a plastic container:
And cleaning products/gifts in crates:
If you don't have obvious spaces to store these things, get creative. Do you have space under your bed? In the attic? Under a sink? In the laundry room? Any of these spaces can aid you in maintaining a stockpile and saving money. Just be sure that your items are stored properly; for example, I wouldn't store cereal or other food in these places unless it was in an airtight container to keep moisture, bugs, dogs, etc. out.
What method(s) have you found useful for keeping a stockpile?
It's holiday time once again! Mr. Poe and I would like to wish everyone a safe and
Happy Fourth of July!
We hope you enjoy some fireworks, BBQ, and a day off with the ones you love.
